(NewsNation) — Recordings of 911 calls released Thursday capture the terror inside a Nashville elementary school during a shooting this week, as callers pleaded for help in hushed voices while sirens, crying and gunfire could be heard in the background.
Police released recordings of about two-dozen emergency calls made during Monday’s attack at The Covenant School, in which three children and three adults were killed. They include the voices of teachers and school officials, some whispering while hiding in classrooms, closets, bathrooms and offices, as alarms rang loudly. One teacher tells an operator she is with 17 children in a classroom and hearing “so many shots.”
The Metropolitan Nashville Police Department identified the six victims fatally shot as Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs and William Kinney, all age 9; Cynthia Peak, 61; Katherine Koonce, 60; and Mike Hill, 61.
In another call, 76-year-old retired church member Tom Pulliam tells the dispatcher he is with a group, including several children, walking away from the Christian school. Although Pulliam remains calm, the tension and confusion of the situation are clear, with several adults speaking over each other and children’s voices in the background.
When the dispatcher requests a description of the shooter, Pulliam asks a second man to get on the line.
“All I saw was a man holding an assault rifle shooting through the door. It was — he’s currently in the second grade hallway, upstairs” the man says, noting that the assailant was dressed in camouflage.
Asked about how many shots were fired, a woman responds, “I heard about 10, and I left the building.”
In another call that started just before 10:13 a.m., a woman tells a dispatcher that she can hear a pause in the gunshots from her hiding spot in an art room closet.
Asked if it is a safe spot, the woman answers, “I think so,” as children can be heard in the background.
The teacher then says she can hear more gunshots, begging the dispatcher, “Please hurry.”
In another call, lead pastor Chad Scruggs, whose daughter was killed in the attack, identifies himself and tells the operator he’s outside the building and heading toward the gunshots.
“I’m getting calls from the inside,” he says.
One woman, who hid under a desk in a nursery, tells a dispatcher the school, which is attached to the Covenant Presbyterian Church, sometimes has some staff members carry firearms but does not have dedicated security guards.
“We do have a school person, or two, I’m not sure, who would be packing — whose job it is for security,” she says. “We don’t have security guards, but we have a staff.”
The release of the 911 recordings comes a day after the community held a vigil to mourn those killed.
“Just two days ago was our city’s worst day,” Mayor John Cooper said at the vigil. “I so wish we weren’t here, but we need to be here.”
Police identified the shooter as 28-year-old Audrey Hale, a former student. Authorities recovered detailed maps of the school as well as a manifesto that is expected to be released at some point.
The community is praising the actions of officers who took down the shooter 14 minutes after the firing began. Body camera footage released this week shows officers systematically moving through the school, clearing rooms as they follow the sound of gunshots to the second floor where they killed the shooter.
“We’re all very proud of him,” Deanna DeHart said of her younger brother, Michael Collazo, an officer with the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department. Even that, though, is “probably an understatement,” she added.
NewsNation writers Tyler Wornell and Devan Markham and correspondent Evan Lambert contributed to this report.
